NFL
By: Joey MacDonald
Thanksgiving night 2025 was a game the Baltimore Ravens and their fans want to forget: it started okay, but then everything went south in a hurry in the 2nd half. Not only did they lose this game, but they single-handedly got outplayed by the Cincinnati Bengals in all aspects of the game. You add in the 5 turnovers by the offense, and the return of Joe Burrow on the Bengals, it became uglier by each play, and it resulted in a 32-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Baltimore Ravens had their 5-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals. The offense had many problems throughout the game as they had five, that’s right, five turnovers in the loss to the Bengals, and they didn’t look sharp and looked out of sync, as Lamar Jackson had a difficult night as he was sacked 3 times, and had 2 fumbles in the 1st half that turned the momentum over to Cinncinnati, and the Ravens could fix those mistakes that turn it into a loss. The running attack for the Ravens was the only good thing for the offense. As both Derrick Henry and Keaton Mitchell rush for a touchdown. Moving forward, the Ravens will need to fix their offensive line if they want to make a push towards the postseason. When you look at the offense, the offense played well, but it was the turnovers that doomed the Ravens after making those mistakes, and they need to make sure that fewer turnovers will help them move forward for a playoff push.
The defense also had a tough night as well, as they gave up more than 20 points for the 1st time since their loss to the Houston Texans 44-10 in Week 5. As they were carved up by the Bengals offense led by quarterback Joe Burrow. But, the only positive that came for the Ravens defense was that they only allowed one touchdown in the red zone and held the Bengals to only 1 touchdown and 4 field goals inside the red zone. Both Marlon Humphrey and Roquan Smith had good games on defense as Smith led the team in total tackles with 11, while Humphrey had 9 total tackles and had the only sack for the Ravens on the night. And, both rookies Teddye Buchanan and Mike Green continue to impress, as they look to become future playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. Even though it was a tough night, the Ravens’ D has to continue to play much better football.
On the other side, the Cincinnati Bengals came into M&T Bank Stadium and knocked the Baltimore Ravens all over the field, which led them to a much-needed win for some momentum. Quarterback Joe Burrow made his big return after missing 9 games with a toe injury, and looked like the Joe Burrow of old, as he went 24/46 for 261 yards and two touchdown passes. Ja’Mar Chase had another one of his usual days as he caught 7 passes for 110 yards receiving. But the one thing that surprised everyone from this game was the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense. Coming into this game, the Bengals’ defense was ranked at the bottom of the league in every defensive category. But the Cincinnati defense forced 5 turnovers, 4 of them were fumbles, and picked off Lamar Jackson once. The Cincinnati Bengals, coming into this game, needed a big-time performance, and they got it from both the offense and defense. And overall, they went to Baltimore and threw the Ravens all over the field like a rag doll on the field.
The Ravens didn’t play up to their standards of the Baltimore Ravens in this loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. This was a game I felt that the Ravens should have won, but mental mistakes and some questionable playcalling doomed them in this loss. Now, they will have 10 days before their next game against the Pittsburgh Steelers to see what went wrong in this game and try to fix these mistakes, going into December. The Ravens will now look forward to the Pittsburgh Steelers for their 1st of 2 matchups in Week 14 and 18, with Week 18 potentially determining who will win the AFC North this year.
